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Red Devil - restoration - final steam test and transfer

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Rating: 4.6; Vote: 3

In the last episode of the Restoration series, the day we all have been waiting for has finally arrived. The mighty Red Devil makes its return to the rails after being in storage for almost fifteen years. The restoration crew do final checks and adjustments, including setting the safety valves, reverser and attending to a number of steam leaks. Once the roadworthy is complete the locomotive departs for its journey back to Cape Town. Western Cape, South Africa. South African Class 26, No 3450 affectionately known as the Red Devil originally started life as a standard class 25 Non-condenser built by Henschel in 1953, works number 28769. The class initially suffered a number of teething problems with their connecting rod bearings and valve gear. This lead to a redesign of the cross-heads and the fitment of larger bearings from other manufacturers. The NCs soon went on to prove themselves as some of South Africa's most capable and reliable mainline steam locomotives with many seeing service well into the early 1990's. They still considered one of the largest non-articulated narrow gauge steam locomotives ever built. Political motivations, strategic locomotive reserve or the looming oil crisis are a discussion for another time and place. I believe it worth mentioning that the Red Devil existence can almost exclusively be attributed to David Wardale, Livio Porta and the many workshop and footplate personnel that took interest in the project and not necessarily the SAR. Wardale's work was met with a fair amount of resistance from the SAR hierarchy with many believing the project to be a waste of time and money on traction that they already considered obsolete. Many also believed that steam had reached its full potential and weren't keen to accept that their own work could be improved upon. If it wasn't for Wardales's rather ask for forgiveness than permission approach the project most likely would have seen untimely demise. With that being said the Red Devil wasn't perfect, prototypes seldom are, but it proved the principles were sound and the hope was that it would lead to the development of entirely new class designed from the ground up deploying those principles. Despite the time and effort invested in its creation, the Red Devil was simply too complicated and soon fell out of favour with maintenance and footplate crews. Many of which simply refused to learn how to operate it correctly and this quickly lead to a false perception that the locomotive was a poor performer and no better than a standard 25NC. With Wardale leaving the SAR and nobody to look after it, crews took upon themselves to remove many of the modification some of which were specially manufactured. There are however a number of structural modification that could not be removed and these are still visible on the locomotive today. Wardale's book is a must-read for any serious enthusiast, if not for the story, read it for the truth. The improvements done during its conversion ultimately lead to 28% coal saving, 30% water saving and a 43% increase in drawbar power. During its peak, the Red Devil had a maximum power output of 5030 hp at 100km/h. 3450 has been in storage for nearly two decades but has now been leased by Ceres Rail Company that have moved the locomotive to Worcester for restoration. Western Cape, South Africa
Date: 2020-05-07

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Comments and reviews: 10

Garth
Wow. so good to see the Red Devil in steam once more. After seeing her at shed in Cape Town station a few years back looking abandoned and somewhat forlorn, I am thrilled to see the condition she is in nowadays. Great respect to all involved in restoring this champion of locomotives to its deserved position as a world renowned national treasure of the rails. Well done Wayne, a proud moment well captured.
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stevehessle1959
They thought that they could kill steam off worldwide & thankfully it's gone the other way. From extinct designs being brought back from the dead via new builds in the UK to burgeoning preservation groups from as diverse places as Ethiopia & Ukraine.
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Neo-Midgar
I teared up at the sight of it racing down the rails. I have Aspergers, and steam locomotives were my obsession as a child, I knew them like an encyclopedia, including this one. This video sparked a feeling I didn't even realize I missed.
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Mark
Gorgeous! Just Gorgeous! The trackage looks really well installed and maintained also! These restorers are heroes! Great filming too! Thanks all of you for keeping 1: 1 scale steam alive and preserved for the future! M. Los Angeles
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Tim
Really cool vid from a model builder myself! LUVED the car drive along side views! Would have been SWEET had car driver got their pace speed recorded from car speedometer on the Dashboard of the car! just sayin, but loved it! HX.
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Ken7663
Thanks for 'A Transport of Delight'! I'm a third generation SAR&H employee. My Dad, Fred Donkin was the last worker of the Natal Government Railways when he went on pension after 46 years service ending at Durban Station
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spgranorthiam123
a thing of beauty is joy for ever, congratulations on your restoration and your beautiful engine, and wonderful scenery. I hope every went well and the engine behaved its self and is running well.
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mackenzie
Hoping to convey the correct meaning with my comments. It's refreshing to see a lack of photographers lined up everywhere at the various points. I know their importance but annoyance is profound at times
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Carmichael
This Steam engine reminds me of Southern Pacific beautiful job on the restoration someday I will have to fly across the ocean to watch the seam engine take to the rails thank you for sharing this video!
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Buzzy
i dont really like the fact that the boiler looks a bit oversized in nsw the boilers are slightly oversized and also the front part of the runningboard is very short and it looks unusual
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